CIVICUS — “a global alliance of civil society groups” — added the United States to its Monitor Watchlist, and warned the world our country has narrowed its guarantee of civil rights. Reasons include “cracking down” on yay Hamas “protests” (which the government never did), unraveling our nation’s DEI programs (aka straight up racist hiring practices), and cutting more than 90% of our foreign aid contracts (ahhh there it is). Now, what sort of cuts are we talking about, and how are they a danger to domestic civil liberties? While it’s impossible to know for sure why specifically CIVICUS is worried, I imagine recent cuts to the National Endowment for Democracy, which is one of CIVICUS’s primary donors, is probably what we’re talking about. And well done! It really was a clever trick, defining “civil rights” as “give me money.” But all that’s over now. Call me fascist if you want, just get a job.

Monday, LA Times profiled several wildfire victims navigating an endless series of frustrating, kafkaesque interactions with State Farm as they try to recover on their claims. And while I'm pleasantly surprised the story doesn't conclude with a call to assassinate the CEO, I'm still annoyed it fails to even gesture at the actual problem: California’s broken insurance regulatory system, a disaster set in motion in 1988 by Proposition 103. Since then, the CDI (California Department of Insurance) has utterly mismanaged the market, creating 30 years of unprofitable conditions for insurers and reducing options for homeowners. Meanwhile, California failed to prevent catastrophic wildfire after catastrophic wildfire, driving up insurer risk even more, making the whole mess exponentially worse. Sure, State Farm sucks, but California's shameful, wide-ranging incompetence is unambiguously to blame. Silver lining? The fix is obvious: repeal Prop 103, abolish the CDI, and refill the damn reservoir.

After decades of atrophy, Trump’s promising a ‘very fast’ revival of America’s Navy to take on China, which has a modest edge on our conventional fleet but a shipbuilding capacity that totally mogs us (potentially by orders of magnitude). Now, I’m not saying we don’t need a Navy, but the CBO estimates billions needed year-on-year to meet the Navy’s production goals within three decades; does it really make sense to spend the next 30 years playing catch-up while China looks to the future? Projecting power will mean something very different a few years from now than it did in 1945. Whatever happens in Taiwan won’t look like the German blockade. It’s going to look like what’s already happening in Ukraine: cyberattacks, hyper-localized drone strikes, AI intel gathering — anything that minimizes direct combat. Because China understands we're already in a new age arms race. Do we?

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what does the future of gaming look like with the innovation of ai? hyperrealistic fortnite skins? non-technical operators being able to remaster any game that's ever been created? games partnering with our neural net systems to create experiences reminiscent of lucid dreams? below, a fascinating exploration on the future of ai-powered video games by the ever imaginative g. b. rango

this week, the crew talks trump’s address to congress, al green’s removal, and all those protest bingo paddles. plus: the decline of decorum, dems are lost right now (is podcaster gavin newsom their savior?), and aella joins the show to talk her “whatever pod” appearance and all things sex

by most measures, violent crime is down across us cities since the pandemic — but household items are still under lock and key at cvs, and our cities still feel lawless. charles fain lehman is up with a smart piece on american disorder: how it’s harder to track and more taboo to discuss than “crime,” but still eroding our urban areas nonetheless

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